>> tonight on "nightline" -- 24 hours to victory. >> are you fired up? >> let's take back america. >> barack obama and mitt romney make a mad dash in the last hours of this tight presidential race. and terry moran and bill weir are hot on the trail as the candidates in a virtual dead heat crisscross the nation in a final push for those make or break votes. plus -- with a new storm approaching and families up and down the east coast still without homes, "nightline" joins our abc family for a day of giving. and gives you a chance to make a difference.

good evening, i'm cynthia mcfadden. tonight, the sprint to the finish line with only 24 hours left in this presidential race, my co-anchors terry moran and bill weir on the trail with the candidates. we'll have their reports in a moment. but first, the other story dominating the news for the past week, hurricane sandy and the devastation left in its wake. and the desire to do something to help. so all day today, disney and abc have been raising money to help those who need it most. we kicked it off this morning with a telethon on "gma" ands of right now viewers tr erers cont staggering amount $15.3 million, which including $3 million from

sam sung. call the number on the screen. we hope you will. we turn to the election. terry moran on the trail with president obama today and joins us from iowa. good evening, terry. 11 cities in three days. >> reporter: that's right, the final lap. and this is the final time barack obama will ever do this. this is his last political campaign and the last rally and so tonight this cold iowa air is thick with emotion and nostalgia and edged with a bit of anxiety about what will happen tomorrow. you talk to the obama people, they express kind of gritty, grim, even, confidence. they think they'll get it done. but they know this time so different from the last time. it's not about inspiration, it's about perspiration, all about hard work. madison, wisconsin this morning, bright and crisp and obama crowd filling the streets about 18,000 of them. sort of fired up.

sort of ready to go. >> i don't know. it's pretty early to be fired up. >> reporter: bruce springsteen came and sang. ♪ no retreat >> reporter: and this time around for obama and his crowd the gritty courage, mournful determination in his song rings truer, perhaps. >> incredible crowd and it's good to be back. >> reporter: he has changed so much. he's in the fight of his life and he knows it and his hoarse voice told the tale. >> we have come too far to turn back now. come too far to let our hearts grow faint. now is the time to keep pushing forward. >> reporter: looblging at barack obama today on the last day of his last campaign, it is impossible not to think back. to what seemed a hinge of history. >> the change we need doesn't come from washington, change comes to washington. >> reporter: the crowds were bigger, more raptured, more hopeful. for so many people it was magic. but it couldn't happen again.

that's not how life works. this is real. this is politics. >> listen, we know what change looks like, madison, and what he's selling ain't it. giving more power back to the biggest banks, that's not change. another $5 trillion tax cut that favors the wealthy is not change. >> reporter: there are two keys to victory for obama this time around, first is dedication, he needs crowds not to so much fall in love with him again but to grip down and get out that vote and to do that he needs the young people, the american electorate of tomorrow. there are 39,000 students at the university of wisconsin and in this state they can register to vote up to election day. why did you vote for him? >> well, i'm gay, so that is a big pull for me. romney is very anti-gay marriage and obama, since he came out and supported gay marriage last spring, that's one of the big things for me. >> reporter: the other key for

obama, well, it's victor schmidt and so many like him. >> i've been laid off three times in three years, basically. >> reporter: would seem like you're the perfect romney voter then. >> never going to happen. >> reporter: why not? >> they just don't represent my values. >> reporter: across the country, white men like victor abandoned obama in droves but here in wisconsin and elsewhere in the midwest the president does better with these voters. for many it seems conservative attacks on the president that question his patriotism and even his american-ness just don't work as well. against obama on the other side, they feel he's not a true blue enough american, you know what i mean? >> they keep saying that. >> reporter: you don't buy that? >> what's a true blue american? >> reporter: obama went to columbus, ohio, this afternoon, jay-z joining bruce springsteen on the bill. but we drove across the farmland to iowa to catch up with the campaign in des moines.

here we go, crossing the mighty mississippi river from wisconsin, battleground state. into iowa, battleground state, where it all began, politically for barack obama, which he needs to come through for him again this year. they were lining up to register and vote in dubuque, both sides looking for every single supporter. scott didn't vote last time. but is coming out for romney. >> felt like this time needed to make my vote count. things look like they'll be close, so time to make it happen. >> reporter: you could decide the election. >> that's right. >> reporter: the last rally of barack obama's historic political journey, the end of a long, hard and often ugly campaign on both sides, and the end of the obama era? or the start of a new chapter, a new chance for him, for them, for hope? so they've given us a souvenir to commemorate this, finish

where we started. they hope they send him back to washington, what's that the people here hope and it all comes to whether that american electorate of tomorrow, younger, bit more diverse will come out in sufficient numbers to do the job. >> thank you for that, terry. next up, my co-anchor bill weir reports live from the romney campaign and there is still time to donate money for the victims of hurricane sandy by calling the number on screen. we'll be right back.

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[ male announcer ] tuesday, early, election day in the united states of america. our ment to make a choice. to bring jobs back. to make the economy, the american economy again. to find someone to lead. to lead us to a better future. the choice, now, the most important vote of our lives. [ romney ] i'm mitt romney and i approve this message. well, we enter the home stretch of this presidential race, which remains

extraordinarily tight, mitt romney is making his final push. traveling across 13 cities in seven states in three days. my co-anchor bill weir on the road with him and joins us from new hampshire this evening. good evening, bill. >> reporter: it's not over yet. believe it or not, mitt romney just walked off stage in manchester, supposed to be the poetic end to a campaign that started a year and a half ago but things are so tight, he added events in ohio and pennsylvania tomorrow, which is either brilliant or desperate depending on which strategist you talk to. om so much time on the clock and this morning the start of the finish line began in orlando. >> we pray that america, over these next few days, would exalt righteousness. >> reporter: the morning began with prayers. >> one nation -- >> reporter: and the pledge. pin sellers.

and to warm up the crowd, just about every big name republican in florida and squirming all of the while, all those little ones brought by hopeful parents for a lesson in living history. >> i could say i met him before. >> reporter: have you always voted republican? abigail's mom is the obama campaign's worst nightmare. a former democrat who brushes off the president's targeted message to women. >> the economy is more important. it's not the social, the woman's right to do what she wants with her boeshgsd we need to get jobs for people. >> reporter: and then, finally, the man of the hour. the question of this election really comes down to this. do the people of america want four more years like the last four years -- or do you want real change, finally? >> reporter: began by promising a better tomorrow tomorrow. while this deadlocked state dealing with the headaches of

yesterday. >> let people vote! let people vote! >> reporter: a long confusion ballot led to eternal lines at the polls and to a lawsuit by florida democrats to force republican state officials to keep early voting open longer. after the morning rally, it was off to virginia. >> the next first lady of the united states. >> reporter: where ann romney joined the final push. >> are we going to be neighbors soon? >> reporter: the ex-urbs outside washington, d.c., a mix of professionals and old south sense built, with razor thin polling margins and coveted undecides like joshua who just joined the navy at age 30. >> i haven't got a lot of clarity from either candidate. we stand with israel and we stand with our ally, awesome. what does that mean? >> reporter: from virginia it was on to ohio and time for dinner. the state to watch tomorrow

night. >> i need your vote. walk with me. walk together. >> reporter: it is so tight here that even in deep blue count kwls billboards rotate romney's face with wanted posters, supporters have come in from out of state to fight the ground game one door at a time. >> support mitt romney, we hope we can get your support this tuesday. >> reporter: you did this four years ago for mccain? how would you come patriot enthusiasm between then and now. >> worlds of difference. >> feels like a turnout election, who gets their people to the pl pos. >> reporter: he teaches battleground politics at the university of akron and point outs that after a season of redistricting and new precinct locations, it might be a good idea to brace ourselves for the fallout of mass ohio confusion. >> this confusion, divisional -- disputes, arguments, lawsuits. fit turns out to be really close it could take a few days, even a

few weeks to sort it all out. >> reporter: please lord, no. >> we've been through that before, right? >> reporter: oh, heaven forbid. if you show up at the wrong precinct in ohio you cast a provisional ballot but they don't count it for for ten days. the most we can hope for is juns late night. >> thank you for that report. we'll see what happens, of course. just ahead, a day of giving and a day of giving back as two abc news producers return to a storm ravaged community to thank those whthat helped them escape the fires and the flood. call the number on the screen. we'll be right back. ♪ [ male announcer ] the way it moves. the way it cleans. everything about the oral-b power brush is simply revolutionary.

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it has been seven days since hurricane sandy tore across the east coast, causing an estimated $50 billion in damage, one of the hardest hit communities, new york's preezy point and tonight two of our producers returned to the ruins to thank the people who help them get out alive. here's abc's juju chang. >> can't believe this is all -- >> it's crazy. 100 homes gone. >> reporter: an emotional journey back to breezy point, new york to look for people they'd last seen as sandy tore into the shore community and

they were running for their lives. >> we knew there was going to be water and wind but i think the last thing we thought was the fire. >> reporter: they were here on assignment for abc news, the only journalists inside this gated community. >> like the apocalypse has hit. >> reporter: amid 80-mile-an-hour winds and 13 foot storm surge a fire erupted and began jumping house to house. >> all night long. >> park lot, all cars back here. it's all gone. >> reporter: this is what breezy looked like when they first arrived on the eve of the superstorm. you guys came out here to do a story about the holdout? >> the people that didn't want to leave. people twhanted to protect their homes. >> we'll check on her. >> reporter: she was introduced to neighbors who decided to ride out the storm. they all lived here on irving walk. >> are you guys okay? >> reporter: when the storm first rolled in -- >> it's in our front yard.

>> reporter: mary and her sister joanne were defiant. >> when there are waves starting right here then i'll start to be concerned. >> oh, my god. >> reporter: then the fire broke out. >> i'm really anxious. >> reporter: >> this was the couch. we were all sitting here. >> reporter: you were sitting on this couch? >> looking out the window and seeing the fire coming right at us. >> reporter: if it wasn't for this man they might not have made it out alive. >> can i hug you? i should never have stayed, should have evacuated but i'm glad i stayed and was able to help you people. >> reporter: he's an off new york city firefighter. he led the group through murky waist deep water to his house. >> i was facing a fire on one side and i saw you on the other. i can do this. >> reporter: but no stopping this blaze. they had to flee joe's house, too. all three of breezy's emergency vehicles were dead in the water and all-volunteer fire

department forced to ee vavacua people with boats. the volunteer fireman on duty that night. they ended up here at st. thomas more church. >> right now we're in a church, 40 of us that are, as sbeek, about to be evacuated and taken out on a bus. this is a community that lost the most people during 9/11 of firefighters and cops. this community was hit hor which tonight. >> reporter: first sunday mass since the floodwaters receded from the pews. >> hurricane sandy has given us a lot to think about, a lot to pray about. >> reporter: and this is irving wall now, the houses gone. residents all survived. >> jumped out of our house, running for our lives and we swam. >> reporter: the firefighters that saved them, their fire

truck and radios were all lost. today, they're limping out on calls. one came in while we were there, with borrowed gear, on borrowed trucks. this one turned out to be a false alarm but the community of breezy is clearly vulnerable. and in these conditions it's obvious it isn't just the fire department in need. this place and so many others like it, up and down the coast, from the rockaways to staten island to the jersey shore, all need help. to rise from the ashes. >> we'll reassess and fix the house and be back. >> party on the back deck. >> got to think like that. >> reporter: for "nightline" i'm juju chang in breezy point, new york. >> our thanks to the people of breezy as well as juju, and jim. >> we'll have the latest election coverage in